Ten Theology Books to Watch For – June 2022

The Cross in the Midst of Creation: Following Jesus, Engaging the Powers, Transforming the World

Sharon Delgado

(Fortress Press)

The Cross in the Midst of Creation: Following Jesus, Engaging the Powers, Transforming the World links Christian understandings of creation, atonement, and the biblical principalities and powers. Sharon Delgado asserts that the crucifixion is ongoing as institutional powers diminish human life and destroy creation, and that the resurrection is ongoing as faith overcomes despair and the Spirit equips people to rise in courage and follow Jesus into the heart of the struggle for a transformed world.

This book explores and critiques traditional doctrines and popular teachings about the cross and draws from various stories of Jesus and biblical metaphors to offer life-enhancing perspectives on this core symbol of Christian faith. It presents the cross as a symbol of God’s presence throughout creation and undying love as revealed in Jesus; also explored are the path of discipleship, the moral bankruptcy of the dominating powers, engagement through nonviolent resistance, and above all, God’s triumph over the powers, offering hope for the world.

It also challenges followers of Jesus to throw off despair and complacency, exposes disempowering and hate-filled teachings that claim to be Christian, and reclaims the gospel as a force for healing, empowerment, and both personal and social transformation.

By participating in the ongoing story of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and experiencing the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit, we discover the creative power at the heart of this and every universe: the all-encompassing, infinite, eternal love of God.
 

ADVERTISEMENT:

 
 

Deification through the Cross: An Eastern Christian Theology of Salvation

Khaled Anatolios

(Eerdmans)

A unified soteriology for the whole church.

It is commonly claimed that Western Christianity teaches salvation as deliverance from sin through Jesus’s sacrifice on the cross, while Eastern Christianity teaches salvation as deliverance from death—and as deification—through Christ’s incarnation. But is it really true that no normative, unified doctrine of salvation is to be found in Scripture and tradition?

Theologian Khaled Anatolios, deeply grounded in both East and West, here advances a soteriology that speaks deeply to all Christians. He argues that both Eastern and Western perspectives are needed, and especially that Eastern theology and liturgy—contrary to Western misperceptions—hold cross, resurrection, and glorification together in an exemplary way. Anatolios uses the phrase “doxological contrition” to suggest that the truth of salvation is found both in Jesus’s perfect glorification of God and in his representative repentance for humanity’s sinful rejection of its original calling to participate in the life of the Holy Trinity.

Deification through the Cross is a salutary rebuttal of the postmodern fragmentation that assumes no single, normative soteriology can apply globally. Anatolios systematically expounds an integrated soteriology, which he then puts into dialogue with various perspectives, including liberation theology, Girardian theory, and penal substitution. All who seek to understand and teach “the joy of our salvation” will find indispensable help in this magisterial retrieval of an often-misunderstood doctrine.

<<<<< PREV. PAGE |
BACK TO TOP >>>>>
PAGE 5 of 5